Off-road enthusiasts focus on safety changes, not criticism

Share this:

Jim Patelli, of Romoland, says he’s been involved in off-road racing for decades and knows that changes are needed to control some spectator access to desert racetracks. Owner of Jim Patelli Motorsports, he stands next to his Chevy half-ton off-road racing pickup.

Driving 70 mph through the hot Mexican desert a few years ago,
Jim Patelli saw someone touch his fender.

“They just reached out and … whoosh,” Patelli recalled. “It
was crazy. We’re racing and the crowd thinks it can come onto the
course.”

It’s a common complaint from off-road racers and dedicated fans.
A sport where everyone once knew how to take care of themselves is
consistently attracting more casual fans who don’t take it
seriously. And that is putting pressure on the sport to enhance its
safety or risk losing access to public lands, especially following
the Aug. 14 crash east of Victorville that killed eight
spectators.

“We’re all biting our nails,” said Rat Sult, an off-road
enthusiast. “We’re scared to death we are not going to be able to
go out and play anymore.”

Drivers and some spectators said the tight-knit desert racing
community needs to patrol its own ranks.

“A lot of these off-road races, they’re turning into Glamis,”
said Fred Recupido, referring to the hedonistic desert locale where
excessive drinking and nudity became common before federal
officials started cracking down. “Glamis became an absolute
out-of-control mess. What you’re seeing now is the same thing. They
go out to party.”

Recupido, a Banning race enthusiast who supercharges cars and
trucks for desert driving, said most races and promoters can
control crowds. But they need to exert more control on where
spectators gather.

The Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that oversees
the land where many off-road activities happen, is reviewing all
permits related to off-road racing in the Western U.S., and it has
suspended the permits of those who promoted the Aug. 14 race.

If promoters need to raise entry fees to fund more security,
off-road racers such as Patelli might be willing to pay more.

“We don’t want this to happen again,” Patelli said.

Supporters say it is the community — from promoters to drivers
to fans — that needs to assert control, not critics and government
officials.

An off-road motorcycle event Sunday in the same San Bernardino
County desert went off without a hitch, a week after a modified
pickup plowed into race fans.

Jerry Grabow of the American Motorcycle Association says last
week’s tragedy was on the minds of organizers and riders alike at
the Desert Scramble in the Mojave Desert’s Johnson Valley.

Grabow says representatives from the Bureau of Land Management
were on hand and came away satisfied with the event’s safety
procedures.

Sponsored by the Invaders Motorcycle Club, the event had up to
300 riders on a 35-mile loop.

TIGHT-KNIT COMMUNITY

Eight were killed and 10 injured when a truck lost control and
flipped into a crowd of onlookers at the California 200
racecourse.

Sult, of Temecula, said enthusiasts raised $200,000 in the week
following the crash for the victims’ families. Teams and businesses
associated with the growing sport have contributed tens of
thousands, he said.

That communitywide support is typical in off-road groups, even
those not involved in racing, said Val Henry, of Devore.

“I know the entire off-road community is feeling their pain,”
said Henry, a board member of California Association of 4WD Clubs
Inc.

Henry said everyone from the casual driver to professional
desert racers knows the dangers of going into remote areas. Even
most of the viewers know where they can safely enjoy the fun, she
said.

But like any group, they have their share of “bad nuts” who
might drink too much and not take proper safety precautions, Sult
said.

Many responsible fun-seekers worry that the new rules will go
too far, he said.

“They can’t have them a half-mile from the course,” Sult said of
pushing spectators back.

SAFETY OF SHUTDOWN

But even off-roading defenders acknowledge the crash foreshadows
a shift in the desert racing culture, especially when it comes to
safety and education.

“I definitely think it is going to change,” Sult said. “We are
going to have a lot more infrastructure, a lot more fences and
security and people. We’re going to be more aware of what’s going
on.”

Many racers said promoters in Southern California need to
emulate those in Nevada who strictly prohibit access to the
racecourse and keep spectators in grandstands in the pit areas. But
that is more difficult in places like Johnson Valley, where the Aug
14 crash happened, because there are more access roads and people
can simply drive across the desert to anywhere along the
course.

The sport is already under attack from some environmentalists
and landowners who say the races harm the land and the loud
vehicles are bothersome. So, off-roaders are banding together to
polish their image.

Part of that is letting outsiders know about what they do, Sult
said.

“A lot of people don’t know us; they think they do,” he said.
“We’re not a bunch of maniacs.”

He said off-roaders are among some of the most committed
proponents of keeping public land public, though they are
constantly being told they can use fewer and fewer open spaces in
Southern California. And despite the image of drunken revelry, Sult
noted many groups sponsor “dune sober” programs that combat
drinking and desert driving.

“There is a greater risk getting injured playing football or
skiing in California than being injured on ATVs,” said Daphne
Greene, deputy director of the California parks department in
charge of the state’s eight off-road vehicle areas.

“If we took one tragic accident and made a policy to disallow
this, we would be doing a disservice to the thousands of people who
enjoy this,” Greene said.

Stephanie Baer is a general assignment reporter covering the San Gabriel Valley. Baer has written about crime, local government, politics and public health. Her reporting on flaws in Los Angeles County's restaurant grading system (http://www.sgvtribune.com/lifestyle/20150625/what-that-restaurant-letter-grade-isnt-telling-you-about-health-and-cleanliness) prompted officials to change the way they issue health grades to retail food facilities. As part of a fellowship program at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism's Center for Health Journalism, she wrote an in-depth series about the dangers of blue-green algae toxins in California. (http://projects.sgvtribune.com/blue-green-algae/) A Bay Area native and UC Berkeley graduate, Baer has worked for the Chicago Tribune and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She was editor-in-chief and president of her college newspaper, The Daily Californian.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.